While cartoonist Thomas Nast was a long-time, loyal Republican, he had responded favorably to Grover Cleveland’s gubernatorial administration
of New York, and in 1884 joined a group of reform-minded Republicans
("Mugwumps") who endorsed the Democrat for president. Although
some of the Mugwumps later criticized Cleveland during his struggle with
the Senate over the appointment power, Nast supported the president in
several cartoons, including this one.

Here, Nast employs an analogy from English history to
condemn Republican senators for usurping the appointment power of
Democratic president Grover Cleveland. The autocratic King Charles
I (1625-1649) had dismissed Parliament and used the Star Chamber, an
ancient court of law, to impose his will, believing that his authority
was derived from God ("the Divine Right of Kings").
Nast, however, reverses the roles to portray the legislators (the
senators) as the absolute monarchs and, by implication, the executive
(the president) as the victim of an illegitimate infringement on his
authority. The dominating presence in the Senate/Star Chamber is
Senator George Edmunds of Vermont as King Charles I; Senator John
Sherman of Ohio presides as Senate president pro tempore; Senator Williams Evarts of New York sits
between them; and, Senator John Logan of Illinois crouches in the shadow
(left).

Throughout the nineteenth century, presidential
power was usually inferior to that of Congress, in both theory and
practice. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln enhanced
presidential authority as commander in chief, but otherwise left
domestic policy largely for Congress to shape. The battle between
his successor, Andrew Johnson, and Congress over Reconstruction policy
weakened the power and prestige of the presidency.

In order to stop Johnson's interference with Reconstruction, Congress
passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. The law added to the
constitutional requirement of Senate confirmation for high-ranking
presidential appointments by also prohibiting a president from removing
such officials without Senate approval. Johnson's
violation of the Tenure of Office Act, by firing Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton, led to the president's impeachment in 1868. The law was
modified the next year, once Republican Ulysses S. Grant was in office,
but it still left the Senate with strict supervisory authority over the
composition of administration personnel.

Subsequent presidents tried to exert some independence from Congress
on the issue of federal patronage, but it was an uphill battle.
When the 49th Congress convened in December 1885, the
Republican-controlled Senate faced the first Democratic president since
Johnson, Grover Cleveland, and they therefore sought to expand the scope of the Tenure of
Office Act. They also hoped to show that the president was
not dedicated to civil service reform (merit over partisan
appointments). Senate Republicans met in caucus and agreed not to
approve Cleveland's sub-cabinet appointments unless he provided complete
documentation on the suspension of current (Republican)
officeholders. President Cleveland considered this an infringement
of presidential authority and instructed his cabinet not to comply.

Senator Edmunds, the Republican chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, found a test case in the dismissal of a
Republican district attorney in Alabama and his replacement by a
Democrat. Following Cleveland's orders, Attorney General Augustus
Garland submitted papers to the Senate on the appointment, but not on
the removal. On January 25, 1886, the Senate passed Edmunds's
resolution demanding that the administration hand over the documents.
The battle line was drawn between the Senate and the president not only
over the appointment power, but also regarding the control of presidential papers
and the extent of the Senate's investigatory power.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended censuring Attorney General
Garland and withholding confirmation of all further presidential
nominations. On March 1, President Cleveland sent a message to
Congress justifying his position on constitutional and legal
grounds. While refusing to admit the constitutionality of the Tenure
of Office Act, he denied that the Senate's current actions were legally
permissible under the scope of the 1869 revision. If the Senate
believed that the president was unfaithful to his duties, Cleveland
boldly pointed out that they could begin impeachment proceedings.

Cleveland's firm and well-argued stance gained him substantial
backing among the press and public. Senator Edmunds, on the other hand,
was personally offended by the president's message, and redoubled his
efforts. Other
Republicans, though, began distancing themselves from the confrontation when they
realized that public support was with the president. The test case
became moot when it was revealed
that the term of the dismissed official had expired. The Senate
confirmed Cleveland's choice for district attorney and other positions,
and stopped requesting documents related to removals.

In December 1886, Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts, a
Republican and devout constitutionalist, drafted a bill to repeal the
Tenure of Office Act, which a satisfied President Cleveland signed into
law on March 3, 1887. Cleveland thereafter took a relatively more
active role in public policy, notably by issuing a record number of
vetoes (482), more than twice as many as his 21 predecessors combined.